Much of the county will have plummeted to the freezing temperature of -4C by Tuesday (February 27) and the cold snap looks set to last. In fact forecasters are predicting that the bitter weather could last into March.

Read More

Here’s everything you need to know about how to survive the big freeze.

How to help your car cope with the cold:

Make sure you have an ice scraper handy next week (Image: Max Pixel)

According to SAGA “battery failure is the most common cause of winter breakdowns”.

Severe cold can put extra strain on your car battery, not just from the added use of heaters, lights and windscreen wipers, but also the extreme temperatures actually have a negative effect on the chemical reaction that needs to take place for the battery to be effective.

With that in mind it’s good practice to give your car a short run each day to help ‘trickle charge’ your battery and give it a boost. Just a couple of days without driving your car in freezing temperatures could lead to it not starting.

Read More

As electrics take a toll on your car battery, make sure the engine is the first thing you turn on, not the lights or CD player.

If you’ve done everything right but when it comes to starting your car in the morning it’s just not playing ball, make sure you try to turn the key in the ignition for a few seconds but then wait at least 30 seconds before trying again. Doing it constantly will only drain the battery further asa the effort of kicking the starting motor into life is power-draining.

With the battery taken care of, here are some more top tips for helping your car manage with temperature drop:

Read More

But there are some things you can do while driving to make sure that you stay as safe as possible:

travel with a fully charged mobile phone in case of emergencies (and it’s always handy to carry a power pack to allow you to charge your phone if, worst comes to worst, your car does break down)

keep an emergency kit in your car with water proofs, a blanket, a large bottle of water, a warning triangle, a fluorescent jacket and a torch

make sure to always carry jump leads if you have them – you never know when you, or someone else, might need a helping hand

if there’s frost on the ground start your car in second gear, making it less likely to wheel spin

if you are travelling in the early hours try to stick to the main ‘A’ roads as much as possible because these are the ones which will be gritted, meaning you are less likely to encounter ice on the surface

if you hit ice, try dropping gears to slow down as putting the brake on could cause you to skid

make sure you leave a bigger distance than normal between you and the car in front because, according to the RAC, braking distances can be double in wet conditions and up to ten times further in icy conditions

give yourself longer to reach your destination – driving in severe weather conditions is likely to bring more incidents on the road which could hold you up, and you should be driving more slowly at appropriate speed for the conditions you are facing

How to keep your house warm when it’s freezing outside:

A hoar frost clings to trees as the sunsets over fields (Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Even when it is freezing conditions outside these are some top tips you can use to make sure that your home stays snug:

make sure that you block out draughts – a draughts excluder to put at the bottom of your interior doors is a great example

wear extra layers – heating is all well and good but it can be expensive so help yourself and your bank balance by layering up as layers of clothing trap heat to make you feel warmer

Read More

try not to leave them outside – keep taking your dogs for walks as the energy they use will keep them warm as well as fit and healthy but try not to leave dogs in the garden for too long and make sure your cat has access to get back into the house when it wants to, without having to wait for you to let it in

make sure the house is heated while you are out as often when we leave for work for the day we turn the heating off so as not to waste energy but keeping it on a low temperature will make it much more comfortable for your four-legged friends

make sure they have extra bedding – in the winter give your pets an extra blanket to help keep them warmer, if they sleep in a cage (for instance, birds, rabbits or rodents) you can also place a blanket over the top to keep the heat in.